Joplin remembers deadly tornado, one year later

JOPLIN, Mo. — A year after a massive tornado tore through Joplin, reminders of the storm’s fury are plentiful — from the glaring absence of century-old trees in the city’s central neighborhoods to the ghostly shell of St. John’s Regional Medical Center.

Residents, hospital workers and politicians gathered across the disaster zone Tuesday to mark the year since the tornado, mixing somber remembrances with steely resolutions to rebuild the battered city, where 161 people were killed.

Additional Photos

A sign remembering a tornado victim is seen on a street corner Tuesday, May 22, 2012, in Joplin, Mo. The community is marking the anniversary of an EF-5 tornado that killed 161 people as it cut a wide swath through Joplin a year ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

FILE-In this May 23, 2011 file photo, a mangled street sign stands among tornado debris in Joplin, Mo. City infrastructure including manhole covers and fire hydrants are among the $500 million in taxpayer assistance provided after an EF-5 tornado ripped through Joplin nearly a year ago,becoming the costliest tornado on record. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) AP

FILE- In this July 21, 2011 file photo, a worker walks among a pile of debris at a landfill in Galena, Kan., where some of the 2 million cubic yards of tornado debris have been hauled from nearby Joplin, Mo. Debris cleanup accounted for about one-fifth of the $500 million in tax dollars spent after an EF-5 tornado destroyed a large swath of Joplin last year. The tornado that tore through Joplin a year ago and already ranks as the deadliest twister in six decades, now is considered the costliest since at least 1950. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) AP

FILE-In this June 14, 2011 file photo, rescued dogs sit in their kennels at a shelter in Joplin, Mo. after surviving an EF-5 tornado that ripped though the city three weeks earlier. Shelter and care for more than 1,300 pets left homeless by the twister accounted for $371,857 of the $500 million in taxpayer assistance provided after the costliest tornado on record. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) AP

President Barack Obama greets students before the Joplin High School commencement, a day before the anniversary of the twister that killed 161 people, Monday, May 21, 2012, in Joplin, Mo. Obama jetted to Joplin to deliver the commencement address immediately after wrapping up the national security-focused NATO conference in Chicago, the second international summit the president hosted over the past four days. (AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Rich Sugg, Pool)

This three-photo combo shows a scene taken on May 23, 2011, top, July 21, 2011, center, and May 7, 2012, bottom, shows progress made in Joplin, Mo. in the year after an EF-5 tornado destroyed a large swath of the city and killed 161 people. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

“It is so fitting to begin this day, this anniversary, by reflecting on our faith as dawn breaks over a renewed Joplin,” Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said at a sunrise service at Freeman Hospital to honor the tornado survivors, medical workers and volunteers who sprang into action after the storm struck. “Scripture tells us that the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”

Many businesses have reopened and homes are being rebuilt, but much remains to be done in this city of 50,000 near the borders of Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. The tornado, packing winds of 200 mph, wiped away entire neighborhoods, destroyed the city’s only public high school and a major hospital, and left behind a ghastly moonscape of block after city block of foundations wiped clean of their structures.

Later Tuesday, city government leaders joined residents, volunteers and state and local politicians for a 4-mile “Walk of Unity” through some of the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods. The afternoon procession started in neighboring Duquesne, where more than one-fourth of the community’s 750 homes were destroyed and nine people died. The Joplin portion of the walk begins past a Wal-Mart where three people were killed and 200 survived by huddling together in employee break rooms, bathrooms and other designated safe zones.

The walk will conclude with a moment of silence at Cunningham Park at 5:41 p.m., the moment the tornado struck. The city park, which is across the street from what is left of the St. John’s hospital, has been rebuilt.

The medical center hasn’t yet been torn down because it sits atop the mining tunnels that made Joplin an early 20th century boomtown. The hospital has been operating out of a succession of temporary facilities while construction continues at its new permanent location, where it will reopen under the name Mercy Hospital Joplin.

The city held the first of three groundbreaking ceremonies Tuesday for new schools in the shadow of St. John’s former home on land donated by the Sisters of Mercy Health System. An elementary school will be built at the site to replace two that were destroyed. “The sound of hammers has replaced the sound of sirens,” said C.J. Huff, Joplin’s school superintendent.

A community theater where three people died after a Sunday matinee performance will be rebuilt nearby. A groundbreaking ceremony was planned for later Tuesday for Joplin High School, which was also destroyed.

“It’s been a roller-coaster type year. Extremely high highs and lots of low lows.” said Debbie Fort, the principal of Erving Elementary School, which has been operating out of temporary facilities and which will be the name of the new school.

“It’s important that we take a moment to reflect and remember,” she said. “But it’s a new chapter in our lives. This really signifies our future, the future of Joplin.”

While many of Tuesday’s events looked back, there was talk of moving on as community leaders look at what’s bound to be yearslong recovery.

Insurance policies are expected to cover most of the $2.8 billion in damage from the storm. But taxpayers could supply about $500 million in federal and state disaster aid, low-interest loans and local bonds backed by higher taxes. Almost one-fifth of that money was paid to contractors who hauled off an estimated 3 million cubic yards of debris.

In January, elected officials and other members of a 45-person recovery committee endorsed a long-term recovery plan that calls for the creation of four new business districts that would allow residents to live and shop nearby and a unified approach to rebuilding that ensures new construction meets certain design standards.

In March, the city hired Wallace Bajjali Development Partners, of Sugar Land, Texas, as its “master developer” to oversee the rebuilding plan.

Tuesday’s events were also expected to attract some of the more than 130,000 volunteers who descended on southwest Missouri from across the country to help out. That group includes a contingent of bicyclists who left New York City’s Central Park nearly three weeks ago on a Cycle for Joplin fundraising ride organized by a group of former Joplin residents known as the Joplin Expats.

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